First off, I am a classicist. I love wooden pencils over mechanical ones. And to take it a step further, I prefer pencils with no attached erasers (they are always so unsightly when the eraser nub has worn all the way down to the metal). I know my preferred pencil is not convenient, but so romantic!

Newly sharpened pencils write magnificently after a few warm up/wear down strokes. I remember how resourceful my dad was - if I lost my pencil sharpener at school, he would take a knife and carve my dull pencils until the lead showed through. My pencil tips looked rustic with all the carve marks. The kids at school thought I was a country fuddy, but it didn't matter. The fact that my dad took the time to hand-sharpen my pencils for school was a small testament to how much he cared. XO